Filling with Plants and Pots

It is not as exciting as it used to be. Am I jaded or just weary?

 I brought Amaryllis into the Mule Barn for a rest. Foliage died back and new leaves emerged, so 4 are in bright light again, hoping for buds soon. I took one out of its pot -- the roots are pretty and white. The tops of the bulbs were kind of soft but the widest part is firm. I scratched away the cedar needles and left the bulb tops exposed. Not going to repot, just give a little fertilizer later.

I have containers of Burro Tail Sedum growing from little beans that broke off. 

 Episcia, new this year. It had a little worm, I saw frass. I can't find the critter. Yet. Those little green bits are tomato cuttings, more experiments for the winter.

Amaryllis, Bilbergia and Rabbit's Foot Fern

  The two pics below show shelves on the east end of the GH.
Tomato vines are vining across the top in front of the fan.
The next shelf has mostly aqua color pots,
few are filled yet except for a couple of Christmas Cacti.

 This shelf has Christmas Cacti in square pots: one each of yellow, white, peach, pink and red. A fern planted itself in one.

Here is a broader view below of the two shelves above:

 

 Bringing the jungle cacti into the greenhouse. The old Easter Cactus that belonged to Miss Winnie is still alive, needs to be cut into pieces and new plants started, a plan for next spring because so many pots take up room. There are 3 good pots of Easter Cactus.
I'm 'bottoming' some of the Cacti with new soil in the bottom of the pot and taking off all the cedar needles that fell into pots.

Bird's Nest Fern reached enormous proportions. Nightblooming cactuses are indoors.  The cactuses are going to be underneath where the tomato plant will eventually crawl past the tin rooster and rest over on the wicker shelves. One that didn't fit is under the shelf with the Bird's Nest. One long limb I couldn't make behave I just cut off and stuck in a pot of soil that was sitting at the door.

 The tomato vine is crawling right on over past the rooster. This is my experiment for the winter, to see if the same tomato plant can continue, topped with fresh soil and fertilizer.

 These are new this year.

 Mistletoe Cactus is one of my favorites. 

I'm disappointed in the Bromeliad tree. They lost a great deal of leaves in summer heat and look sad. It stayed inside because it was so heavy to try to drag out. I have some nicer Neoregelias and some pups coming on from the potted Broms that bloomed outside. Notice the Persian Shield growing behind the 'tree.' It needs cutting back to encourage new growth which might help the looks of the 'tree' too. 

 Burro Tail. There's lots of these.

 Empty cache pots are everywhere, awaiting grouping by color and filling as needed.

Brought Staghorn Fern in last night. It rejuvenated itself out under a tree.

Barely Inside the Greenhouse

Peeks into the greenhouse are of little interest these days. I mostly go in to turn on the vent fan, start or stop the mist system and do things with water.

This is my hope for tomatoes in cold weather. 

Started from a tiny sucker in the axil of a bigger tomato plant, it sat around rooted, waiting for a home. I finally put it in a big nursery bucket. Too hot now even outside for fruit to form, it should start to put on tomatoes come cooler weather.

There are a few plants left inside that never joined their friends summering outside in shade. Every little piece of succulent material is saved and set to root.  

Yesterday when I checked on the post garden, a squirrel had dug into the pot of Burro Tail on the left below. I have BIG pieces to root now.

Sedum morganum could go back inside. With ample water they can tolerate the high temperatures hovering around 100 degrees at time inside the greenhouse. 

Maybe the cat can keep squirrels out.

I keep looking at containers and wondering just how many will fit in there.

I can give the Firecracker Fern (Russelia equisetiformis) a haircut. Some years it blooms all winter. Long stems on Graptopetalum in the pot with it could stand breaking off and re-rooting with shorter stems too. On the other hand I kind of like the sinewy shape the stems take.

I made a mistake, moving Calla lilies to sunnier spots outside the greenhouse. Some leaves are sunbleached. I moved them back to shade. 

Inside the greenhouse, I pulled out a great bale of purple alternanthera that was reaching for the rafters. I pulled the front half of the south side; much more remains. I think it helped some with shade but shade was beginning to crawl to the center of the room.

While the days are so hot I tend to stay in the house, only going out to water and check on things. There's a heat advisory today. Temperatures are not predicted to get to triple digits, but the heat index may approach 109º because of the humidity.

Follage Follow Up in the Greenhouse

Let's start outside the door with a broken pot container full of Graptopetalum and Sedum acre. The sedum is blooming vigorously, the Ghost Plant bloomed earlier.

Inside, despite some warm temperatures on sunny days, some foliage plants remain.

From top left, an Agapanthus seedling, far from ready to bloom. Agapanthus outdoors is putting on buds. At the rear are some rose cuttings and a red pot with green dotted garden gloves somebody asked about the other day. Center front are two Mistletoe Cactuses grown for their foliage. They had tiny white blossoms about a month ago. At bottom, Persian Shield and a Bird's Nest Fern.

Burro's Tail sedum

Purple foliage behind is alternanthera growing in the 

greenhouse floor and vining up and over everything.

Staghorn Fern that I suspect would like to go outside

for the summer.

Join Foliage Followup at Pam Peniick's Digging blog